Kyrie Irving is getting fed up with the officiating.
The Celtics star said the amount of foul calls Giannis Antetokounmpo draws is "getting ridiculous" following his team's Game 3 loss on Friday.
After Game 3 loss to Bucks, Celtics' Kyrie Irving on Giannis Antetokounmpo's free throw attempts: "He shot 22 on the game. It's getting ridiculous at this point. It's slowing the f---ing game down." pic.twitter.com/GMvCYjRBTx
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 4, 2019
"It's inevitable you know. Guy (Antetokounmpo) comes in almost six times in a row and gets free throws," Irving said. "What are you really going to do? It's slowing the game down. So the run that you would hope to make in a quarter like that doesn't happen. Shot 22 on the game. I mean, it's getting ridiculous at this point. It's just slowing the f—ing game down.”
Irving didn't record a single free throw attempt in the second round until Game 3 in TD Garden, where we made 11 of his 12 attempts.
Antetokounmpo converted 16 of his 22 free throw attempts on Friday and finished the contest with 32 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists and three blocks in a dominant performance. Irving bounced back from a nine-point outing in Game 2 with a team-high 29 points for the Celtics.
Boston simply couldn't establish itself in the middle. The Bucks scored 54 points in the paint to the Celtics' 24. A disparity this large definitely isn't a recipe for success.
The Celtics, who many hailed as the favorites to win the Eastern Conference before the 2018-19 season, will have a chance to knot things up in Game 4 on Monday.
But it will have to do a better job of getting to the charity stripe and limit the Greek Freak's access to the paint.